Legal community shaken by a powerful law firm's decision to give in to Trump's demands

Trump’s efforts to intimidate the legal profession cannot stand.”

A Washington Post editorial appeared earlier this week headlined

Lawyers are supposed to stand up to the government when there’s an abuse of power, and a firm like Paul Weiss has the capacity to do that,

Ms. Levin said

I totally understand kind of where Paul Weiss is coming from, because it was facing existential threat,

said Ronald Barusch, a retired partner from Skadden Arps

Remember: Lawyers tell clients everyday to make compromises on principle. That you need to settle disputes and resolve them. So, they are probably following the advice they might give themselves,

Mr. Barusch said

It’s not too late to leave your firm and find one with a backbone,

said a commenter on Paul Weiss’s corporate LinkedIn page

Jeffrey Sonnenfeldprofessor

In no way does the agreement constrain Paul Weiss’s ability to zealously represent clients’ interests in their defense against Trump administration actions or regulatory litigation from executive agencies,

Mr. Sonnenfeld said

They have all the resources they need to fight an unlawful order,

said John Moscow, who was a top prosecutor at the Manhattan district attorney’s office under Robert Morgenthau

This is a time for soul-searching,

another lawyer, who used to work at Paul Weiss, wrote on LinkedIn

There are things where principle is stronger than the dollar.”

Another critic of Paul Weiss’s move, Mark Zaid, a lawyer who represents whistle-blowers, including in a case that led to Mr. Trump’s first impeachment, said

The conversations are happening at the firms. The people that I know in the law will say out loud, ‘This is what is happening.’ And they are just scared, and they’re hiding behind notions of fiduciary duty,

Cohen said

This is not what I saw for my career or for my evening, but Paul Weiss’ decision to cave to the Trump administration on DEI, representation and staffing has forced my hand,

Cohen wrote in her firmwide email, which went viral on social media after she shared it publicly

They have a moral duty to defend the very system that has allowed them to make the kind of money that they make. These law firms are now basically so profit-driven that they are putting their own economic interests...above the system,

Conway said

Everybody always looks at that statement as if it is an assault, attack, insult against lawyers,

Zaid said

Their silence is not only not going to protect them, it is going to kill people.”

Asked by NBC News what message she had for those in positions of power who are staying quiet, Cohen said

Everyone is now constantly looking over their shoulder, wondering if they say the wrong thing to the wrong person or in a monitored chat they could lose their job,

a Justice Department attorney said

Is this going to be unhelpful to the aim that I am working towards, which is the protection of not just my colleagues, but the rule of law in the United States of America? Because the stakes really are that high.”

Her key question was

We are in this moment where the president is testing what he can get away with and whether the structures that we have in this country that are supposed to prevent us from having a dictator will hold,

she said

During this discriminatory era, Paul Weiss emerged and grew as a mixed law firm, a coming together of Jewish and non-Jewish lawyers to form a more welcoming and diverse large law firm,

he said

With this behind us, we can devote our complete focus — as we always do — to our clients, our work, our colleagues, and our Firm,

the firm’s chair, Brad Karp, wrote in an email obtained by HuffPost

The commitments reaffirmed today are consistent with Judge Simon H. Rifkind’s 1963 Statement of Firm Principles,” which states, among other things, that “we believe in maintaining, by affirmative efforts, a membership of partners and associates reflecting a wide variety of religious, political, ethnic and social backgrounds,

Mr. Karp wrote in the email